1. Field
The present disclosure relates to managing complex or large projects using an associative memory.
2. Background
Project management is an art as old as civilization itself. For example, ancient Egyptians managed the project of building the pyramids at Giza. However, the techniques of project management have been studied and refined in modern times in order to increase the efficiency of projects in terms of cost, time, and possibly other parameters.
For example, one business project management strategy developed in 1986 is known as SIX SIGMA®. One of several possible goals of the SIX SIGMA® project management strategy is to institute a manufacturing process which produces less than 3.4 defects per million product units manufactured. However, SIX SIGMA® is only one example of a business management or project management strategy.
Many such strategies exist, and software exists for aiding project management. Further, many different types of projects exist. One type of project may be manufacturing a large number of production units, or perhaps manufacturing a smaller number of very complex production units, such as aircraft. Other types of projects may include establishing a company, conducting research and development, establishing a space program, such as a program to send a manned mission to the planet Mars, and many other different types of projects. Thus, project management techniques may be applied to many different types of projects, and many different project management techniques exist. Yet further, multiple effective project management techniques may exist for each type of project.
As mentioned above, research and development (R&D) may be one type of project to which project management techniques might be applied. Research and development may refer to work directed towards developing different types of technologies. Different types of organizations may undertake different types of research and development projects. These different types of organizations may include, but are not limited to, governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, military organizations, companies, corporations, independent contractors, charities, nonprofit organizations, partnerships, hybrid organizations, and other suitable types of organizations. A hybrid organization may be an organization that operates in both the public sector and private sector.
An organization, such as a private company, may undertake different types of research and development projects. In some cases, a company may undertake hundreds to thousands of research and development projects over many years. As one illustrative example, a company may have multiple departments within the company. Each department within the company may be responsible for work on tens to hundreds of research and development projects. Additionally, in some cases, more than one department within the company may be responsible for tasks for the same research and development project.
As the number of research and development projects undertaken by a company increases, the difficulty of managing these research and development projects also may increase. Further, managing the information for these different research and development projects may become increasingly difficult as the number of research and development projects increases. Information for a research and development project may include, for example, but is not limited to, a list of tasks associated with the research and development project, an identification of a research and development project manager, a list of employees involved with the research and development project, a list of deliverables, a list of deadlines, a list of research and development project milestones, funding information, expense information, research logs, and/or other suitable types of information.
In some cases, information for the research and development projects in a company may be stored in a number of different locations and/or in a number of different formats. As the number of research and development projects increases, managing information that is stored in different locations and/or in different formats may become increasingly difficult and more time-consuming. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above as well as possibly other issues.